3 homemade salt scrub recipes to try

Save your skin and the planet with these all-natural homemade salt scrubs.

A homemade scrub can be a thoughtful, moisturizing gift.
(Photo: matka_Wariatka/Shutterstock)

Both sugar and salt scrubs are designed to exfoliate the skin. Massaging them into damp skin removes layers of dirt and dead skin cells and encourages skin to shed at a more rapid rate, typically every 30 days. Exfoliation also leaves behind healthy, glowing, softer skin.

While sugar scrubs are made up of small granules and are better suited to exfoliate sensitive areas like the face, or for gently exfoliating skin with eczema or acne, salt scrubs are more abrasive with larger granules suitable for harsher scrubbing of callused skin like that of the feet, or as an overall body scrub to encourage skin shedding. What’s more, salt contains minerals like magnesium, potassium and calcium, great for skin cell restoration and reducing the signs of aging.

You can buy salt scrubs at varying price points from inexpensive to pricey, or you can experiment with making homemade variations with simple kitchen ingredients. Stored in pretty glass jars, salt scrubs make great gifts, last six months, and can vary in scents and healing properties.